Tinctura Benzoini (U. S. P.)—Tincture of Benzoin.
Related entry: Benzoinum (U. S. P.)—Benzoin - Compound Tincture of Benzoin
(Modern shorthand: 1:5 91 %)
Preparation.—"Benzoin, in moderately coarse powder, two hundred grammes (200 Gm.) [7 ozs. av., 24 grs.]; alcohol, a sufficient quantity to make one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]. Mix the powder with eight hundred cubic centimeters (800 Cc.) [27 fl℥, 25 ♏︎] of alcohol, and macerate for 7 days, in a closed vessel; then filter through paper, adding, through the filter, enough alcohol to make the tincture measure one thousand cubic centimeters (1000 Cc.) [33 fl℥, 391♏︎]"—(U. S. P.). This tincture is of a brown-red color, and is acid in reaction. With water it produces an opalescent mixture. The cosmetic preparation, known as LAC VIRGINIS, or Virgin's milk, is prepared by mixing various amounts of rose water (from 20 to 100 parts) with 1 part of tincture of benzoin.
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—This agent was formerly extensively used in catarrhal affections of the breathing and urinary organs and digestive tube. By atomization, or by inhalation with steam, it sometimes gives relief in acute and chronic laryngitis and bronchitis, particularly if there be fetid expectoration. Tincture of benzoin is stimulant and protecting in the early stage of coryza. It has been applied with advantage to irritable ulcers, bed-sores, sore nipples, and, with glycerin, to chapped hands and face, for freckles, and other cutaneous eruptions, excoriations, and abrasions, and irritable condition of the parts about the anus; also to allay the itching of eczema, urticaria, and chilblains.
